The Aftermath
by quidditchandfood
Summary: Anomalies opening simultaneously across the globe wasn't going to go unnoticed; and it wasn't long before people tied personally to the events of the convergence began to intervene with the ARC's work, forming the CBO. [[Primeval fanfiction, set roughly a year after the season 5 finale. Featuring all main team members (Abby, Connor, Jess, Matt, etc.) with background Conby.]]
1. Conspiracy Buster Operation

[[Authors Note: This is set around a year after the events of the season five finale. I'm a huge loser, and also a huge Primeval addict. Thus, when the show was cancelled, my head began to make up its own new scenarios. I've tried to write others down, but this one came most naturally. There isn't much about the team in this chapter, as this is really an introduction to the plot, but the story will include Connor, Abby, Becker, Jess, Matt, Emily and Lester - as well as the various pairings that come with those names. I have a rather lengthy story to this plot, and it's all planned out in my head; I see no harm in writing this down for other fans craving new material for a finished show. Hope you all enjoy :) ]

**CHAPTER {1} CONSPIRACY BUSTER OPERATION**

**_"_**_Your secret is out. No matter how many cover up stories you come up with, not matter how many news reports you wipe from existence, we will remember. You can't hide forever. One day you'll come out of the shadows. We'll be the ones dragging you out.__**"**_

The convergence had burnt down the pedestal of secrecy that the ARC and it's work had been perched upon since its beginning; Lester had never had much of a problem with cleaning up a creature's mess with a vague yet believable story — the task getting done faster when Jenny Lewis had still been around — but there was no explanation to give to the public as to why there were 'strange orange and yellow lights' appearing around the globe simultaneously. Nor was there was a way to explain to families of incursion victims as to how their daughters, sons, brothers and sisters and others died. Scientists were still trying to depict the universal phenomenon, and with each passing day, there were individuals who began to crave answers. Those people soon banded together, finding comfort in having others in similar situations to speak to. They donned aliases on the internet, set up web pages, picketed outside government facilities: they formed what they came to call the Conspiracy Buster Operation.

As soon as their first blog post became public to the World Wide Web, Jess Parker traced the IP address, and surveillance was ensued on each member. From the frantic mother who had lost her husband and seventeen year old son to the andrewsarchus that appeared in her kitchen after emerging from the _thing _that the CBO had come to name 'time drifts', to the scuba diva who watched his best friend get eaten by some sort of aquatic theropod: each member of the group had their own reason for wanting to analyse and understand the events of the convergence. Of course, some motives were less complicated to others — the most common being that people wanted, _needed _someone to blame for their loss. Those were the people who ran the primarily online group.

With each new mission, it seemed the team always had a shadow. Abby Maitland was the first to notice: an anomaly to the Jurassic period had opened in the middle of an ice skating rink (of which Jess had shut down immediately after the anomaly's detection), thus opening a door for seven juramaia to enter, and landing them in the slippery 21st century. They weren't dangerous, though rather difficult to contain. Upon splitting up to search the building (it seemed stairs were no opponent to these eutherian mammals), Abby turned around to see a man in a black hoodie run in the opposite direction. Assuming he was chasing one of the escaped juramaia, she pursued after him, though lost his trail when she spotted the mammal in questioning hiding underneath the stalls in the arena. The man didn't enter her mind again, until Jess reported spotting two people in dark colours lurking around a closed anomaly area on the CCTV. It was then the team realized that perhaps the CBO had left the comforting anonymous perks of the internet, and instead decided to take their work closer to home.

They were determined and united by a common passion. But unlike the ARC, they weren't a private government facility. They didn't have a hotline to the Minister like Lester, nor military staff at their disposal. They didn't understand the anomalies as much as the team, who had members within it whom had been dealing with the incursions and the science behind the time rifts for five years, or has background knowledge due to not being from this time at all. They didn't have a menagerie of creatures that they could observe and grasp a better apprehension on the creatures than any fossilized bones could ever deliver.

But what they did have was a camera attached to their computers, internet access, and an account to a website which allowed you to host a live webcam stream. By the time Jess found such videos, the Conspiracy Buster Operation already had a vast audience. Whether there was strong factoids and truth behind their words didn't matter anymore: they had built up their image and made themselves well known. By raising awareness, they had made sure that it no longer mattered that they weren't the biggest bullies on the block. Power was in numbers, and they sure had them.

It wasn't until the break in at the ARC that the team realised that tracking the CBO members and blocking their websites wasn't enough to put them down. And by then, of course, their numbers were far too high for dissipation.


	2. Infiltration

[[Authors Note: Hey! I was so surprised and pleased to see the responses I got on the first chapter that I decided to upload this next one here as soon as I finished writing it. I didn't expect to get any reads within a day of uploading my little work of fiction, so to get reviews already with such positive words on really made my night: so thank you for all of those. This chapter focuses more on a certain two team members, though also delves into the infiltration hinted at in the previous chapter. Hope you like it; please let me know if you do :) ]]

**CHAPTER {2} INFILTRATION**

**_"_**_On the twenty eighth of June, last year, a tyrannosaurus rampaged through the busy streets of the centre of London. Eight people were killed. The rest were severely damaged: emotionally and physically. Call this what you like: a military test gone wrong, a public awareness campaign which went out of hand. Whatever you say won't change what it really is — its murder.__**"**_

Connor Temple and Abby Maitland had been traversing around the jewellery store closest to their apartment on the hunt for wedding rings when Becker had called. The trip had mainly consisted of Connor acting like a child in a sweet shop – muttering "cool" under his breath, and occasionally pointing to a ring he liked, calling over to Abby who was in mid conversation with the saleswoman about how there was some sexy stuff on his side of the store. Despite this, they had been inches away from deciding on a pair that they both liked, when Connor's phone began to buzz; three minutes after excusing himself to take the call, he entered the store once more, grabbing Abby's hand, telling her they were needed as he half pulled her, half walked with her back to the car park.

**"**Anomaly?**" **Abby asked as they got into the car, waiting for Connor to tell her where exactly she was supposed to drive to.  
**"**One opened not far from here; no creature incursion, but they need new locking mechanism.**" **Connor corrected as Abby started up the car, immediately making their way to the ARC. It wasn't the couple's day off, so to speak; when jobs were as unpredictable as theirs were, it was hard to schedule days where not even a gateway to the past could get them out of bed. Members of the team — though not including Jess, who, being the hub of the operation, was needed constantly — had taken to choosing their own days off, on the conditions that they could return to the ARC at a moment's notice, if need be. Perhaps it was this tightly, yet blurry, packed schedule that was responsible for Abby and Connor, despite it being a year since their initial engagement, not yet being able to call each other the titles of 'wife' or 'husband'.

If you were to walk up to a randomly selected bystander on the street, and explained that, for a living, you used equipment that you designed to close temporal intersections by sending out an electromagnetic pulse that reversed their polarity, the person would either think you're utterly mad, or madly intelligent. But for Connor, all the things previously stated were now just in his nature. It was his life, and there was nothing crazy about it to him. Six years of dealing with the anomalies (one of which consisted of surviving living in the cretaceous) altered your view upon things. It had taken some persuasion from the team to get back into researching the anomalies; the fear of falling into an abyss that leaded to the same outcome of his work with Philip Burton was always present. Fear of failing Nick Cutter, Abby and the rest of the team was more prominent. Yet eventually, the knowledge that he could be spending time saving and helping people, and advancing on Cutter's work, outweighed the darker thoughts.

They handed the new mechanism to Matt within thirteen minutes of leaving the jewellery store (it would have been slightly less, but the pair had decided picking up a black box and communication ear piece each wouldn't be too bad an idea.) Within another four minutes, the anomaly was sealed and the faulty locking device was packed away and put into Abby and Connor's car, ready for Connor to analyse and fix back at the ARC. Fast forward another thirty minutes and the unfamiliar alarm would sound throughout the whole government research facility.

Once returning back at the ARC, the team dispersed. Connor took the defective apparatus downstairs, where he could hopefully grasp an understanding as to why it failed. Emily and Matt walked over to Jess in the control room, informing her that the anomaly site would need to be cornered off until it closed (which was retorted to with an eye roll, a "you're hilarious" and a grin from Jess, along with Matt and Emily's realisation that, _of course, _Jess had already made sure of that.) Becker was in the weapons room, reloading his EMD (newer versions of the original ones Matt had designed, now with enough charge to — hopefully — take down a giganotosaurus), and Abby made the decision to visit the menagerie; where she was immediately greeted by Rex, the coelurosauravus that may be losing his colour, but certainly not his enthusiasm.

The alarm that sounded when an anomaly had been detected was well known to the herpetologist's ears- the fire alarm too (due to government fire safety protocols.) But the long, blaring bleeps that sounded, causing her to pour too much of the sand mix she had been making for Sid and Nancy, was alien. It was as unsettling as it was unfamiliar.

The noise was the parade music for the man and the woman, dressed in completely black attire, who entered the menagerie as if it were no big deal. One, male, held a tranquilizer dart gun, and the other, female, a camera. One item they supported was intended to be used on the creatures they knew were beyond the door that Abby Maitland had firmly positioned herself in front of. The other item was for anyone that doubted they could get the proof they had been yearning for.


	3. Engaged

[[Author's Note: Considering that I was planning on updating this story every two days or so, this chapter is extremely late. To make it up to all of you amazing people who have followed/favourited/reviewed this story, this once is extra long. Really, I cannot be more happy at the comments I have gotten on this story; be it criticism or praise, I seriously am grateful for it all. I hope you guys like this chapter: the next one will continue from where we leave off, and delve deeper into the foundations of the CBO. Thanks again, and enjoy :) ]]

**CHAPTER {3} ENGAGED**

**"**_When that light opened up in my bedroom, I was confused. When I heard the deafening roars coming from it, I was afraid. As I clutched at my bed sheet, begging for someone to save me as that monster tore up my leg, I was in pain. Now? Now I'm just angry. I was an athlete; and now I'm a victim of a story no one will believe. Just look at me. I've lost everything. Give me answers. I deserve them.**"**_

Jessica Parker was blind. All three computer screens that made up her hub had shut down; and it was surely no coincidence that such a thing happened just as the intruder alarm sounded throughout the building. It was no feat for her to reboot the power to the main systems — the power wasn't the problem at all. It was the camera feeds. Boxes on her screen that usually showed all necessary rooms of the ARC building now showed only grey static; and due to the unlikelihood of every camera that made her the all-seeing eye of the ARC malfunctioning at once, it was clear that something had been tampered with.

Within two minutes of the alarm blaring through every sound system, whilst the military staff followed their own rehearsed protocol of securing each exit of the building, members of the initial team began to surround Jess, each with their own question. Jess gave vague, half-sentences as answers, as she frantically swivelled her chair and typed faster than any average human could, desperately trying to get the cameras back online. It was Becker who got silence to replace loud queries, with words of his own. "Matt and I will help my men to patrol the lower floor. Abby, Connor and Emily can take upstairs." He ordered the team, picking up his EMP from the desk adjacent to Jess' hub as he did.

"Where is Abby?" It was Matt who spoke this time, turning to Connor as he did. Connor seemed surprised at the questioning, pivoting as he looked around, as if Abby would jump out from behind a pillar or table. "She was in the menagerie." He answered after a few short moments of silence, turning in the direction of the corridor that would take him there. "She's probably— "

"Guys. You need to see this." Jess interrupted, causing Connor to turn back around as the rest of the team gathered around the middle computer screen. The camera feeds, after several attempts, had begun to turn back on, one by one. Jess had magnified the feed that came from the camera in the upper corner of the menagerie; the image it displayed being what caught her attention, and that of the others. It didn't take a genius to know that the two strangers in black that were seen in the room with their missing team member weren't friendly (if the fact that they didn't work in the building wasn't proof enough, than how one had a tranquilizer dart gun pointed at Abby surely was.) The team had seen enough; whilst Jess called for men to retrieve the hostiles, Emily, Matt, Connor and Becker had already made their way to the scene.

— — —

Rex chirped as he circled the room, landing underneath the table (the woman who held the camera had been attempting to take a picture since they arrived in the room, but the flashes that occurred each time had driven Rex away.) Whilst the reptile was avidly trying to avoid contact with the new arrivals, Abby wasn't breaking her gaze on them; it was hard to look away when the male was standing less than an arm length from her, the gun he held even closer to her than he was.

Upon the entrance of the two, Abby had been quick to block the door that lead to the creatures — when she had seen the gun, the blonde had believed that it was to be used on the animals, thus her decision to stop them from nearing them anymore than they already had done. However, despite her first impression, it seemed the visitors wanted no more than to gather photographs of the creatures, rather than actually take them; but even if that was the lesser of two evils, their attempts to cross her would still be futile.

Abby's eyebrows furrowed as she watched the red haired woman chase Rex around the room, knocking over the sand box as she failed once again to get a clear shot of the flying lizard. Despite the mood of the situation, Abby couldn't help but smile ever so slightly at the fight her green friend was putting up — a smile that was wiped as the head of the man's gun was pushed harder into her chest. "I _said _let me pass, or I will have to put you down." The man repeated, for the third time. He seemed to be all talk and no action; he had yet to 'put her down', and with her own EMP and comms out of reach, all Abby could do was hope that these threats were empty after all.

When the intruder pushed his tranquilzer against her for the second time, this time with more force than the times prior, Abby's patience began to wear thin. She was neither a fan of being assaulted nor pushed around — and when the woman began to throw things at Rex in order to get him still for a picture, her fists clenched. The blonde raised her arm, planning on knocking the tranquilizer out of the man's grip; but it seemed her opposer saw this coming, as he met her arm with his spare hand, fingers tightly wrapping around her wrist. Right before she was going to retaliate and allow a proper fight to break out (despite the man clad in black's advantage of holding a gun) the door to the menagerie was opened from the outside once again; Becker entering with a medium sized EMP in hand, the rest of the team following through. Their appearance was only noticed by the three humans (and one coelurosauravus) in the room when Connor made their presence clear, as he entered the room after Becker and Matt, calling out Abby's name as he did.

The gun-holder released his hold on Abby, turning around to face the new comers, as his tranquilizer found a new person to point at. To him, the solider holding a gun larger than his own was much more of a threat than the small blonde woman he was close to attacking. Much to his surprise, his change in direction was a mistake on his behalf, it seemed, as said small blonde woman took the advantage of no longer being on gun point and the man's attention being diverted. With a swift kick to the back of his knees, and bringing her elbows down on the crook of his neck, the man that once held the upper hand was now kneeling, facing the floor. Were he to avert his attention from the ground to above, he would get a close up of Becker's EMP, which was now positioned directly between his eyes.

The woman too was swiftly taken care of, as the backup Jess had previously requested traversed in and confiscated both her camera and her ability to do anything with her hands (the latter being done with the aid of a pair of handcuffs.) It was only when such a deed had been done that Abby left her guarding position of the balcony door, moving to stand beside of Connor (whose worried expression had morphed into a more bewildered — and possibly even slightly turned on — one, after seeing the fall of the male intruder first hand.) Becker and his men had begun to leave the room, taking the red head and the gun holder with them; directly on their way to question the two in the interrogation room that Lester had been waiting in since Jess told him about the invasion.

"So much for a peaceful day off." Abby looked up at Connor as she spoke, arching one eyebrow as the pair left the menagerie, which was now empty (except for Rex, of course, who had to stay contained due to ever going bioscans, much to his distaste.) Connor grinned, following Becker's lead — he for one certainly wanted to hear what the intruders had to say, and Abby held no different opinion on the matter. "There's always tomorrow, hey?" He replied, before they slipped into the room, Connor closing his mouth and choosing not to speak again when they were faced by the sincere faces of collegues.

The male and female behind the glass window, still handcuffed, were sat at a table similar to the one Nick Cutter had interrogated his deranged wife in five years before. Matt and Lester were sat opposite, leading the questioning. Emily left her seat and walked over to Connor and Abby after they had entered, shutting the door behind them, speaking in a hushed voice to as to not to interrupt the female who was telling, with a tone of pride, just how they got past the ARC's hefty and high tech security.

"Conspiracy Buster Operation. They're members."


	4. Connection

[[Authors Note: This chapter is extremely late, as was the last; getting these thoughts out of my head and into a word document takes time, but I definitely left this one too long. This chapter is really just unveiling the motives of our two intruders from the last chapter, and the realization that the CBO are smarter than everyone accounted them for dawns. I don't know how much I like this chapter; I mean, I hope you readers do, but it felt slow for me. Agh, I promise the next one will be better, and that the pace does pick up. Thank you guys for keeping up with me, and as always, I hope you enjoy :) ]]

**CHAPTER {4} CONNECTION**

_"Every child loves dinosaurs. The rowdy ones favour the velociraptors and the calmer ones the brontosauruses. My son was one of the former. He had plush raptors and plastic raptors: he was even one for Halloween. But whilst being attacked by one, whilst seeing others attacked by one...he didn't seem to love them as much."_

On the day of the Convergence, a tyrannosaurus-rex rampaged through the streets of central London. It was broadcasted on every news station until the following fortnight, accompanied with other unconfirmed reports being sent from all over the globe. There were cover up stories of course, though many anomaly openings were easier to brush under the mat than others. Some stories, like the ones used for the incursions far too large to be missed, made little sense; yet people would rather believe them than the idea that prehistoric creatures could become a threat in the 21st century. It was amazing what people would agree with, just to keep to the same laws of reality that they had always been happily confined to.

Matt Anderson had been the one to bring down the T-Rex (aided by an EMP that was designed for just the task he accomplished). Whilst on his way to the scene, a blonde teenage girl — Jenna, she had said her name was — ran in front of his car, crying for help. She said her friend was hurt; she really believed that hurt was the word to be used. Hurt is something you can come back from. Death is not. Matt knew from the moment he saw Jenna's friend (whom he assumed was called Lucy, as that was the name the girl had called as they ran down the staircase to where the injured teenager lay) that her creature-inflicted wounds were beyond helping. It would take a miracle to bring her back.

Jenna had needed that miracle; as did the red headed woman sitting opposite Matt, handcuffed to the table. She was sniffing, blinking furiously as to not let the tears overflow, as she recounted the phone call she received from rescue services; as she recalled how it felt as if her blood flow had stopped entirely when they removed the white sheet covering her daughters limp body so as to ID her. No one deserved to hear that their daughter was killed in the most absurd of ways, whilst doing something as innocent as shopping. No one deserved to lose anyone in such a way; in any way.

Matt handed the woman a handkerchief, not meeting her eye. Perhaps, had he of tried, he could have made that miracle.

"Well, I do think that's quite enough for today." Lester drawled, speaking to the male and female Conspiracy Buster Operatives responsible for the ARC's earlier break in. The woman, who told the room that she was known as Valerie Hinxman, had told her story — one that certainly decreased any angry thoughts circling around the room — and how they had managed to enter the building without the ID bio-tags that all employees wore (a plan that other CBO members had been devising for the past two months; and by the wide mispronunciations of all technological language in her explanation, was not a plan Valerie Hinxman should hold credit for) almost immediately after they began the interrogation. The man (unveiled as one Harrison Ley by his companion) was harder to get something out of, but after enough probing queries from James Lester and Matt — and after possibly getting tired of hearing Valerie answer said queries in long rambles that took up far too much of everyone's time — he eventually spoke up. He didn't speak in depth, but from what information was said, it was gathered that his business crashed due to damage to the building and stocks by creatures that came through 'time drifts'.

He had lost everything. Valerie Hinxman had lost everything. So they joined others in similar positions, and together they made something.

"Charges will be pressed, of course; breaking into private government facilities and threatening the safety of the employees are both extreme felonies. Not to mention wasting my time." Lester continued, as two of Becker's men began to assist the intruders out of the room. Matt followed them, though instead of leaving entirely stayed in the sector that all remaining team members had been listening from.

Connor left the conversation he was having with Abby and Becker — the latter of the two having left also to follow his men — and walked over to Matt, tapping him on the shoulder so as to get his attention. Before Matt had even turned around to face Connor, the team member had already began speaking; words that he had clearly revised over and over in his mind before this moment. "I get how they managed to crack the security codes and scanners. But those two somehow got past guards and other workers in the building from the entrance gates to the menagerie without being seen; and if they entered at four like they said, then that means it took a whole fifteen minutes for the alarms to be triggered."

"What are you saying — that they lied about how they got in here?"

"No, I'm saying that it only takes around five minutes to get from there to the menagerie, so —"

"So what were they doing the rest of the time." Matt finished for Connor, hitting his back as he walked past him, as if to say 'good job for noticing', and walked out of the door, still addressing the team as he did so.

"Jess, we need people searching in places that cameras or recorders might have been placed in. Ventilation systems, desks, shelves: everywhere. Connor, Abby and Emily help them." He turned around and nodded to the three who were still in the listening section as he spoke the last sentence, before walking back over to the ADD in the hub once they responded to his words. "Becker, speak to all your men who were on guard at the time. I want to know if they saw anything suspicious." Becker confirmed the order through the comms, and Matt could already see soldiers dispersing around the ARC, searching high or low for any bugs the CBO operatives could have employed.

He was now standing behind Jess, who had managed to get everything back online; though data recorded when the cameras had been sabotaged was irretrievable. The brunette had been going through the archives of all websites the CBO had accounts on, looking for anything that hinted at plans for the break in, or recent posts that concluded they did in fact have their own looking eye inside of the ARC. So far there was nothing that was too unusual; but there were still plenty more Facebook statuses and blog entries to leaf through.

Having directed everyone else, Matt bought out his own laptop and sat at the desk next to the ADD, opening up the folder of which he saved all video blogs uploaded by the CBO account into. He had watched each one at least once (with admittedly divided attention) and ticked the people in the video off for being people who believed things were much easier said than done. He now knew that that was an unsupported assumption to make.

The Conspiracy Buster Operation was no longer just a group of people with wireless connection  
It was a group of people with a profound and internal connection.  
They were no dinosaurs or future predators. But still, they were dangerous.


End file.
